SOHAIL SARFRAZ

ISLAMABAD: Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) member Inland Revenue (IR) Operations Khawaja Tanveer Ahmad has conveyed to Chief Commissioners of Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Regional Tax Offices (RTOs) to immediately plug in the loopholes in evasion-prone sectors and industries of economy for increasing overall revenue collection of FBR.

Sources told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that after assumption of the charge of Member IR Operations, Khawaja held video conferencing with the Chief Commissioners of LTUs/RTOs to chalk out a comprehensive strategy to achieve both the objectives of taxpayer facilitation as well as reduction in cost of compliance.

During video conferencing, he also issued guidelines for the field formations to enforce an effective strategy for the meeting the assigned revenue collection targets for 2017-18. “Our objective is to reduce cost of compliance of taxpayers, ensure facilitation and achievement of the assigned targets,” sources said.

Tax authorities informed the field formations that the FBR was ahead of the collection made in last July 2017 when compared with July 2017.

He further directed the field formations to ensure reduction in the cost of compliance and scrutinize data of certain sectors including real estate sector, builders and developers, cement, sugar, iron and steel, ghee/cooking oil, educational institutions, commercial importers, wholesalers/distributors, chemicals, cosmetics, paper and paper board etc. From sales tax point of view, comparative analysis of input/output would be carried out to monitor their sales with actual inputs used during the process. Field formations would also see correlation of sales with the actual income tax payment made by these sectors.

FBR Member IR Operations has also directed to identify the black sheep in these sectors and ensure tax compliance by them.

At the same time, Khawaja Tanveer Ahmad further directed Chief Commissioners of LTUs/RTOs to focus on services sector including doctors, dentists, medial practitioners, lawyers, fashion designers, pathological labs and other professionals. The exercise would also check whether these service providers are paying taxes as per their ability to pay.